Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2008 - (Page 19) Creating a cultural readiness checklist We hope you are encouraged to jump into the Web 2.0 “webolution” To do so, you will need to not only focus on providing the power of these tools to the learner, but will need to be prepared to lead the change and adaption. Here are a few steps you might consider based on the wisdom of many thought leaders in our industry for launching a Web 2.0 learning initiative in your organization: Assess the cultural fitness of your organization, as building the right environments or experiences for the audience will be critical to 2.0 success. Ensure your key stakeholders and learning leaders are ready to relinquish control and engage the collaborative and creative ideas of your community. Consider who are your early adopters and which programs have the highest natural fit for immersive or virtual knowledge sharing? What are steps that you can take to enroll and engage these early adopters so that they have a stake in the initial design, success and viral spread of your program? Determine what is the cultural appetite for enabling opinion and dissent. Are there initiatives you can sponsor to help encourage site visits? Are there topics or issues that are of high interest to your community that will engage interest? During your needs assessment, we also recommend evaluating learner requirements and readiness. Does the learning event require group interaction or individual consumption? Are there time or financial restrictions for travel? Does the learning need to be available just-intime and/or accessible 24x7? For application-level objectives, how immersive does the experience need to be? The Delivery Selection Matrix can be a simple reference to determine options for a blended solution that meets both the learner needs and corporate objectives. This blended solution may incorporate both traditional and 2.0 solutions. Training Delivery Selection Matrix Individual (asynchronous) Group (synchronous) Virtual world platform Interactive electronic classrooms Webcasts Real World simulations Classrom Workshop Bulletin boards Social portal Wiki/blog Chat rooms Threaded Complex game Portal-based WBL Simulation WBL Dynamic WBL with branching and media Text-based WBL Captivate WBL Complex games Simple games Podcast 3D world game High tech (Web 2.0) EPSS Mobile casts Digital reference documents E-mail messages/ Flash.exe Reference guides Job aid (traditional) Low tech Consider a technology and user assessment to determine both what is feasible (for example, capability with Blackberry server, issues with virtual worlds and firewalls) and what the target audience will consume. Select your launch projects carefully. Consider practice sessions as a toe-inthe-water for virtual worlds to allow participants to meet in small work groups either formally or informally in a virtual world prior to building a large simulation in the virtual world. How mission critical is your content and is it stable? Traditionally, if content was not stable, then a Web-based solution, considered a significant investment, might not be the best solution. With mobile learning, social networks, podcasting, archived webcasts or facilitated application sharing, stability is less important than ensuring that access, ease of use and bandwidth are sufficient. Pilot, Test and Pilot. We need to ensure that learners are not frustrated by the experience, or find fault with the technology at the cost of disengaging from the learning solution. Consider providing multiple delivery options for the same content. A mobile learning course for the frequent flyer is a great option to turn that travel downtime into a learning opportunity. At the same time, the identical content could be a downloadable executable file, sent via e-mail, for those employees who are desktop bound. 19 Training Industry Quarterly, Fall 2008 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.